Tourism And Hospitality Marketing

With my experience, I can say that the impact of hospitality service has been increasing among the companies and the companies have been using it as a platform for their marketing. Companies like Nike, Tigerwoods are often fond to conduct road shows to directly reach people and create an impact on their mind. Their approach has been successful and has been able to build the necessary connection with the people that they targeted.

It is my personal observation that when people go for a tour, they hope to carry with them lots of experiences and memories. Tourism policies make it pivotal to complete the experience of the tourists right from the beginning of the journey until they leave they leave the place and reach their home. Marketers can use any of the platforms to endorse their product and mark an impression on the tourists. I have understood that, if something attracting or unusual happen in the tour, then it is bound to put impact on the tourists. Therefore, it can be said that a personal interaction or providing an opportunity for social interaction would help to attract more consumers. Therefore, it is expected that the companies have to come up with such marketing that it will create a direct impact on the mind of the consumers. If hospitality has to be taken into account, it can be said that the way a person is treated and the experience that the person gains in his or her life retain in their memory. Therefore, if a marketing concept is targeted by a means of hospitality or personal service, then it is bound to create impact on the mind of the targeted people.

Concept of Experiential Marketing and its Applicability in Tourism and Hospitality:

I have gained a lot of knowledge about the concept of experiential marketing with my personal experience. The main concept behind experiential marketing is to create a bond between the consumer and the company by the means of attracting them in a fun and memorable experience. The only motive of the brands behind experiential marketing is to associate consumers with emotions with the brand. It was clear in my perception, that if a brand is able to stir the emotion of the consumers, they are more likely to associate with the brand. Every major companies like Samsung, Facebook, Disney Channel, Adidas and other never ending list of companies have been using tourism as a platform for their marketing.

I have noticed that marketing and tourism help to attract each other since a long time. The role of marketing has been increasing with the increase of the importance of tourism. With the increasing sports activities happening around the world such as Olympic, World Cup, it has become easier for the marketers to attract more consumers for the sake of their marketing. Aiming people during their tourism activities can be fruitful if correct approaches are made with better innovative techniques.

I have noticed many companies to use experiential marketing. For example, in 2012 London Olympics, Samsung created a brand experience at various destinations around London. The Company targeted places like Canary Wharf, One New Change, Broadgate and Heathrow. It was at that time that Samsung launched Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note. The Olympic Games became a great platform for the Company to endorse their product and attract more consumers (wsj.com 2016). The approach made by the Company was that the visitors could play with the Samsung Olympic Games apps or take photos that would be made customized. The company even offered a free Samsung phone to the winners. All these activities are bond to attract people towards the brand, create an emotional bonding, and thus help in experiential marketing.

Doc McStuffin’s, a Disney Channel TV show targeted children and created an experiential marketing where girls were involved for check-ups. The marketing was hugely successful and it was able to attract 8,000 children to participate in the marketing process.

Conclusion:

With the increase in tourism activities, experiential marketing has been gaining importance. Marketers are mainly targeting mega events and famous tourists’ destinations to reach out maximum consumers and fulfill their target of marketing. This type of marketing is gaining huge importance and has become an important part of marketing for various companies. Even a small cue can put impact on the mind of the people and make the experiential marketing successful. With my personal experience, it can be said that experiential marketing is gaining momentum and marketers are not leaving a single instance to market their product or service among the target consumers.

References:

Berry, L. L., Carbone, L. P., and Haeckel, S. H. 2002. Managing the Total Customer Experience. MIT Sloan Management Review, 43(3), 85-89. 

Knutson, B.J. and Beck, J. A. 2003. Identifying the dimensions of the experience construct: Development of the model. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, 4(3/4), 23-35. 

Lashley, C. 2008. Marketing hospitality and tourism experiences. In H. Oh & A. Pizam (Eds.), Handbook of Hospitality Marketing Management (pp. 552). Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann. 

Morgan, M. and Xu, F. 2010. Student travel experiences: Memories and Dreams. In N. Scott, E. Laws, and P. Boksberger (eds.). Marketing of Tourism Experiences (pp. 118-138). London: Routledge. 

Scott, N. Laws, E., and Boksberger, P. 2010. The marketing of hospitality and leisure experiences. In N. Scott, E. Laws, and P. Boksberger (eds.). Marketing of Tourism Experiences (pp. 1-12). London: Routledge. 

Uriely, N. 2005. The Tourist Experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 32(1), 199-216. 
Volo, S. (2010). Conceptualizing experience: A tourist based approach. In N. Scott, E. Laws, and Boksberger. Ed. Marketing of Tourism Experiences. London: Routledge.

wsj.com, 2016, Samsung Explains Why It’s Betting on ‘Experiential’ Marketing, Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/samsung-explains-why-its-betting-on-experiential-marketing-1469649268 [Accessed on: 22-8-2016]